Written in 1901, based on lectures at the Theosophical Library, Berlin (CW 7)
"Natural science makes bread; the 'mystics' taught the way of cultivating their souls as a garden in which such seeds could sprout and reach their full potential. 'Mysticism' from this point of view is an inner process that can illuminate and transform--make transparent to their higher meaning--outer facts. The fragmented multiplicity of the 'dissected' world becomes thereby unified in
meaning." --
Christopher Bamford (foreword)
The mystics Steiner writes about in this book were early giants in the modern art of illumined self-knowledge. Their ways of seeing the world, God, and themselves foreshadowed all that we practice now in the best of meditation, both East and West. Here, you can read about their essential passion for unity, their practice of intensification of perception, and their ever-fresh insights into the process of knowing itself.
Steiner immerses us in the evolving stream of these eleven mystics who appeared in central Europe between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. They managed to resolve the conflict between inner perceptions and the new seeds of modern science and human individuality. Based on the lives of those mystics and on his own spiritual insight, Steiner shows how their ideas can illumine and preserve our true human nature today.
Rudolf Steiner ends his book with a quotation from the Cherubinic Wanderer, a collection of sayings gathered by Angelus Silesius: "Dear Friend, this is enough for now. If you wish to read more, go and become the writing and the essence yourself."
"The present book,
Mystics after Modernism, is a fruit of Steiner's lecturing activity. The substance of it was contained in a series of lectures he gave in Berlin beginning just after Michaelmas in 1900 when he was thirty-nine. Steiner wrote later, 'By means of the ideas of the mystics from Meister Eckhart to Jacob Boehme, I found expression for the spiritual perceptions that, in reality, I decided to set forth. I then summarized the series of lectures in the book
Mystics after Modernism.'" --
Paul Marshall Allen (afterword)
Mystics after Modernism is a translation from German of Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens und ihr Verhältnis zur modernen Weltanschauung (GA 7), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, 1993. A previous edition was titled Mysticism at the dawn of the Modern Age.
Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. Steiner termed his spiritual philosophy
anthroposophy, meaning "wisdom of the human being." As an exceptionally developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern, universal "spiritual science" that is accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unbiased thinking. From his spiritual investigations, Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of numerous activities, including education (general and for special needs), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, Christianity, and the arts. There are currently thousands of schools, clinics, farms, and initiatives in other fields that involve practical work based on the principles Steiner developed. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of human beings, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods for personal development. He wrote some thirty books and delivered more than six thousand lectures throughout much of Europe. In 1924, Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches around the world.
Paul Marshall Allen (1913-1998) was an authority on the life and work of Rudolf Steiner and, as the "first American-born anthroposophic lecturer," was a leading pioneer of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual science across North America. He edited and wrote introductions for numerous books on Anthroposophy and spiritual wisdom, including his classic work,
A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology (1968), and wrote
Vladimir Soloviev: Russian Mystic (1968). With his wife Joan deRis Allen, Paul coauthored Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures (1996); Fingal's Cave, the Poems of Ossian, and Celtic Christianity (1999); and The Time Is at Hand! (1995).Christopher Bamford (1943-2022) was born in Cardiff, South Wales, and lived for a while in Hungary and then in Scotland. He studied as an undergraduate at Trinity University in Dublin and earned his master's degree at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. For nearly thirty years, he was Editor in Chief at SteinerBooks (Anthroposophic Press) and its imprints. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he lectured, taught, and wrote widely on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions. His books include a selection of his numerous introductions, Encountering Rudolf Steiner: Introductions to Essential Works (2022); Healing Madonnas: Exploring the Sequence of Madonna Images Created by Rudolf Steiner and Felix Peipers for Use in Therapy and Meditation (2017); An Endless Trace: The Passionate Pursuit of Wisdom in the West (2003); and The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity (1990). He also translated and edited numerous books, including Homage to Pythagoras: Rediscovering Sacred Science (2001); The Noble Traveller: The Life and Writings of O. V. de L. Milosz (1984); and Celtic Christianity: Ecology and Holiness (1982). Essays by Mr. Bamford are included in The Best Spiritual Writing 2000 ("In the Presence of Death") and The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 ("The Gift of the Call"). Christopher passed over the threshold on May 13, 2022, at his Mt. Washington, Massachusetts home.
Karl Ernst Zimmer (1927--2019) immegrated to the United States in 1946, having lived in Germany, Switzerland, and Turkey as a youth, and already fluent in German, Turkish, and French, and having a background in Greek, Latin, and English. He studied at the University of Chicago as an undergraduate in 1947 and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. He did graduate studies at Columbia, where he received a PhD in 1963. Karl's long career was centered at U.C. Berkeley, where he was appointed in 1965 as an assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics, rising to the rank of professor and remaining there until his retirement in 1991. Karl was also a witty poet of short, pithy poems in both German and English. Karl was married to Suzanne Clements, with whom he had two children.
